[Foundation-l] A new proposal regarding US chapters

[Jimmy Wales]

I don't find this line of thought compelling at all.  There is no need 
for a separate legal national organization, and indeed this would be 
confusing and counter-productive.

I can see an argument for US chapters not need a legal organization at 
all (just use the Foundation for this), and I can see an argument for 
each of them having their own legal organization (this seems better to 
me), but I can't see having one non-Foundation organization for multiple 
chapters.

Henning Schlottmann wrote:
> Anthony wrote:
> 
>> Here's my current thoughts on the matter, after talking with you about
>> it privately.  It's an attempt at a grassroots bottom-up strategy
>> (which both the WMF and the chapters-to-be seem to want) which at the
>> same time attempts to avoid constantly reinventing the wheel.
> 
> I don't see the beef. The United States don't need a number of local 
> chapters, they need one national chapter to provide for a membership 
> organization associated with the Wikimedia Foundation. Local groups can 
> form under the national umbrella without being incorporated themselves.
> 
> Get the organizers of all local meetups, the Pennsylvanians, the New 
> Yorkers and everyone else who ever made some steps to chapterhood 
> together on a mailing list, ask around if one of the Wikipedians 
> involved is a lawyer who can handle any questions, choose a state where 
> to incorporate the chapter (based on locality of a few core members and 
> the answers of your lawyer) and set up the chapter. That's not rocket 
> science. Wikipedians usually are smart people, you should be able to get 
> it done without any problems.
> 
> You need a charter, send it to the Foundation to have it approved, send 
> it to the state office to have it registered, and that's about it.
> 
> Henning [[user:H-stt]]
> 
> 
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